VICENTE JUNIOR BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU

PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY

Final Results Fitness offers instruction in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu through the Vicente Junior Academy. The Academy is a registered IBJJF and USBJJF facility and the instructors are registered IBJJF and USBJJF instructors. Academy Academy Director Vicente Junior (often referred to “VJ”) is a World Champion in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is currently a 3rd Degree Black Belt under Master Ricardo De La Riva. VJ has won many competitions, including the Worlds, Pan Ams, and New York Open. Many of his fights and training videos can be found on YouTube. VJ has truly dedicated his life to the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He still has his own academy in Brazil, but has come to the U.S. in search of new horizons. He has many students of all ages in both the U.S. and Brazil. VJ is sponsored by Bad Boy and he is recognized by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation.

Stephen S. Rinker – BJJ Brown Belt, Head Instructor of the Prof. Vicente Junior BJJ Pennsylvania Academy Steve started his martial arts training in 1999. At that time, his school was part of the Machado Brothers Jiu-Jitsu organization. Shortly thereafter, the school became the Renzo Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu PA Academy. In October 2001, Steve was promoted to the rank of Blue Belt by Renzo Gracie at his academy in New York City. From 1999 to 2007, Steve trained two to four days per week and started teaching Jiu-Jitsu in 2004. In 2005, he was promoted to Purple Belt by Renzo Gracie. In 2009, Steve stopped teaching so he could focus more energy on his own training. In the beginning of 2010, he found Professor Vicente Junior, a World Champion and 3rd Degree Black Belt under Master Ricardo De La Riva. Since then, Steve has travelled to Vicente’s school in Delaware two to three times per week to train with Vicente. In May of 2010, Vicente promoted Steve to Brown Belt. Steve is currently Vicente’s highest ranking student here in the U.S. Since 1999, Steve has dedicated his life to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and he has learned from many great instructors during that time. Steve feels that this has been a benefit because he has also learned different styles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu over the years… ranging from self-defense and MMA to sport Jiu-Jitsu. To continue his development and training, Steve still travels to Delaware to train with Professor Vicente Junior.

Kevin D. Siffel – BJJ Purple Belt, Assistant Instructor of the Prof. Vicente Junior BJJ Pennsylvania Academy Kevin began his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training under the Machado Brothers in 1998. During that time, he travelled to California and trained at their main academy. In 2000, his school became part of the Renzo Gracie organization and in New York City in 2001, Renzo promoted Kevin to Blue Belt. In 2010, Kevin started training with 3rd Degree Black Belt Vicente Junior and in May of 2010, he was promoted to Purple Belt by Vicente. Over the duration of Kevin’s years of training, he has attended countless Jiu-Jitsu seminars and has had the opportunity to train with many different instructors, thus learning many different styles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After finding Professor Vicente Junior and being a student of his elite style of BJJ, Kevin feels he has finally found his home. This transition has opened an exciting new chapter to his training and he looks forward to teaching all students the great benefits of being a part of this fine organization. For Kevin, Jiu-Jitsu is more than just a sport; it is a great way of life. Kevin continues to train with Professor Vicente Junior.

Jiu-Jitsu itself was developed in Japan during the Feudal period. It was originally an art designed for warfare, but after the abolition of the Feudal method in Japan, certain modifications needed to be created to the art in order to make it suitable for practice. During Feudal instances, Jiu-Jitsu was also known as Yawara, Hakuda, Kogusoko, and an assortment of other names. The earliest recorded use of the word "jiu-jitsu" happens in 1532 and is coined by the Takenouchi Ryu (class). The history of the art during this instance is uncertain because teachers kept everything secret to give their art a feeling of importance and then would change the stories of their art to suit their own needs.

After the Feudal period in Japan ended (Jiu-jitsu was no longer needed on the battlefield), a way to practice the art realistically was needed, which is why Jigoro Kano (1860--1938), a practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu, developed his own method of Jiu-Jitsu in the late 1800's, called Judo. Judo was helpful because it allowed practitioners the ability to try the art safely and realistically at the same instance. The most important contribution Judo created to the practice of "Jiu-jitsu" was the concept of Rondori. Rondori was a form of sparing and contained a set of sportive rules that makes practice safe, yet realistic. Because of the sportive outlet (rules that makes practice safe), pupils of Jiu-jitsu from Kano's class were able to practice more frequently due to the fact that they were not always recovering from injuries. This multiplies the amount of training periods for pupil's of Kano's class and drastically increased their abilities. Judo (Kano's version of Jiu-jitsu) was watered down from the complete form (of Jiu-jitsu), but still contained enough methods to preserve its realistic effectiveness. The one problem that occurred was, in Kano's opinion, floor work was not as important as achieving the toss or take down, therefore floor combating was not emphasized in Judo and became weak in that method. Judo also began placing too many rules and regulations on the art to make it more acceptable as an Olympic sport. Leg locks were not allowed, and when a combat went to the floor, a player had only 25 seconds to escape a hold or pin before the match was lost. These are a few of the rules that hindered Judo as a realistic form of self-defense. Then why did Judo flourish and why was it so great? Even with all the rules and restrictions, the period-tested principle of "pure grappler beats pure striker," still holds true. The fact remains that most combats, even those combats occurring between strikers with no grappling experience, end up in a clinch. You see the clinch in just about every boxing match, and hundreds of punches usually need to be tossed to end the combat with a strike, which gives the grappler plenty of opportunity to take his/her opponent to the floor, where a pure striker has no experience and is at the grappler's mercy.

After a match-up between older styles of Jiu-jitsu and Judo at the Tokyo police headquarters, Judo was named the national martial art in Japan. It was the official art used by law enforcement in the late 1800's, and continues to be popular to this day. During World War II, many U.S. soldiers were exposed to the art of Judo and brought it back to America with them. The first issue of Black Belt magazine here in America (1961), featured a sketch of a Judo toss and was a special Judo issue.

It wasn't until the birth of martial arts in Hollywood that the mystique of martial arts myths were catapulted to the public eye on a large scale. Here in the U.S. especially, Bruce Lee was one of the greatest catalysts for martial arts in the world today. Bruce Lee was actually a pupil of Judo and did many studies on grappling while he was alive. He criticized traditional martial arts as being ineffective, but ironically spread more myths about martial arts through his movies than almost anyone in martial arts history.

Jigoro Kano was the founder of Judo, however, Judo is simply a style of Jiu-jitsu and not a separate martial art. Kano was not the first to use the name Judo, the Jiu-jitsu classs he studied at, which would be the source of much of his Judo's methods had used the phrase before he created it famous in the late 1800's.

The first use of the name Judo was by Seijun Inoue IV, who applied it to his Jujitsu of Jikishin-ryu. Pupils of Jikishin-ryu Judo were not only expected to learn its ninety-seven methods, but to also develop into generous and gentle-mannered individuals.

Kuninori Suzuki V, the Teacher of Kito-ryu (Kito means to Rise and Fall) Jiu-jitsu, changed the name of Kito-kumiuchi to Kito-ryu Judo in 1714. The most important contribution that kito ryu would offer Judo was the principle of kuzushi (off-balancing), which is the key to the tossing methods of modern Judo. Jigoro Kano studied the judo of Jikishin-ryu and Kito-ryu, and incorporated some of their concepts into his original method, which he named Kodokan Judo.

Judo is created up of many styles of Jiu-jitsu whose are the best Kano had studied with. The most notable were Jikishin-ryu, Kito-ryu, and later Fusen-ryu would be incorporated for its floorwork (ne waza) as Kano would ask the style's head teacher, Mataemon Tanabe for his syllabus. Yokiashi Yamashita (Kano's Chief assistant) would add his knowledge of Yoshin Ryu ju jitsu and Tenshin shinyo Ryu ju jitsu, both of which, he was the best.

Before the formal meeting between Kano and the grandteachers of Japan's greatest Jiu-jitsu classs, a defining event occurred, which is one of the most historically important pieces of the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu puzzle. By 1900, the Kodokan had been challenging other Jiu-Jitsu classs in sport competition and winning with tossing (standing) methods. Much of the Kodokan's status was built on the tossing skills of Shiro Saigo, a practitioner of Oshikiuchi, the art of Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. Jigoro Kano had actually enlisted the help of Shiro Saigo in order to win a famous tournament at the Tokyo police headquarters in 1886. This tournament, mentioned briefly earlier in this chapter, was Judo (Kano's style of Jujitsu) vs. "old" Jujitsu. It is interesting to note that Kano's champion was not originally a Judo pupil at all, but a pupil of an older Jujitsu style, which in reality, defeated the purpose of having a Judo vs. Jujitsu tournament in the first place.

As I stated earlier, Judo was a collection of Jiu-jitsu styles, once such style was the Fusen Ryu. Fusen was a class of Jiu-jitsu which specialized in Floor Work (Ne Waza). In 1900, the Kodokan challenged the Fusen Ryu class to a contest. At that instance Judo did not have Ne Waza (floor combating methods), so instead they fought standing up, as Kano had been taught in both the Tenshin Shinyo Ryu and Kito Ryu methods he studied. Both Kito Ryu and Tenshin Shinyo Ryu had excellent striking skills and effective tosss.

When Kodokan Judo practitioners fought the practitioners of Fusen Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, the Kodokan practitioners realized that there was no way they could defeat the Kodokan Judoka standing, thus they decided to use their superior floor combating skills. When the Kodokan combaters and the Fusen Ryu men began to combat, the Jiu-Jitsu practitioners immediately went to the guard position ( lying on their backs in front of their opponents in order to control them with the use of their legs). The Kodokan Judoka didn't know what to do, and then the Fusen Ryu practitioners took them to the floor, using submission holds to win the matches. This was the first real loss that the Kodokan had experienced in eight years.

Kano knew that if they were going to continue challenging other Jiu-Jitsu classs, they needed a full range of floor combating methods. Thus with friends of other Jiu-Jitsu methods, among them being Fusen Ryu practitioners, Kano formulated the Ne Waza (floor methods) of Kodokan Judo which included three divisions: Katame Waza (joint locking methods), Shime Waza (choking methods), and Osae Waza (holding methods). This all occurs shortly before Judo arrives in Brazil, and serves as an excellent suggestion as to why Brazilian Jiu-jitsu contains a higher percentage of methods on the floor than most styles of Jiu-jitsu or Judo. Thus, we find ourselves faced with the impending development of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil.